1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a washing machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a drum-type washing machine includes a tub mounted in a vertical direction with respect to a main body and a drum installed in the tub to be capable of reversibly rotating. The laundry is loaded in the drum and washed by chemical reaction by the washing machine and detergent and physical reaction generated by lifting and falling of the laundry. Therefore, the drum-type washing machine has been widely used as it less entangles the laundry as compared with the pulsator-type washing machine.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional washing machine.
A drum-type washing machine includes a top plate 1, a cabinet 2 defining an outer wall of the washing machine, a control panel 3 provided with a variety of manipulation buttons, a front panel 4 having a laundry input opening, and upper and lower decoration panels 5 and 6 installed on both sides of the control and front panels 3 and 4.
The top plate 1 and the cabinet 2 define an outer appearance of the drum-type washing machine while protecting a variety of components of the drum-type washing machine. The control panel 3 includes a variety of buttons for inputting a washing mode and other functions and a display unit for displaying a current washing cycle of the drum-type washing machine.
The front panel 4 is formed under the control panel 3 to define the front portion of the drum-type washing machine and a laundry input opening is formed on a central portion of the front panel 4.
The side decoration panel 6 is installed on both sides of the front panel 4 to improve the outer appearance of the washing machine.
A process for coupling the side decoration panels to the front panel will now be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.
As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, first fixing holes 41 are formed on opposite end portions of the front panel 4 and second fixing holes 42 are formed on a side-rear portion of the front panel 4. At this point, the first and second fixing holes 41 and 42 are arranged along a vertical length.
First and second hooks 61 and 62 corresponding to the first and second fixing holes 41 and 42 are formed on an inner side of the side decoration panel 6.
Describing the coupling process of the side decoration panel 6 to the front panel 4, the first hooks 61 formed on the side decoration panel 6 are first inserted in the first fixing holes 41 to guide the position of the side decoration panel 6. Next, the second hooks 62 are inserted in the second fixing holes 42 of the front panel 4 to fix the side decoration panel 6 to the front panel 4. In this process, the second hook 62 is elastically deformed to be forcedly fitted in the second fixing hole 62.
The above-described coupling process has the following problems.
Referring to FIG. 2, during the process that the second hooks 62 are forcedly fitted in the second fixing holes 42 while being elastically deformed, the second hooks 62 interfere with the outer circumferential end portion A of the second fixing hole 42. Therefore, the portion A may be worn and damaged.
As a result, even when the second hooks 62 are coupled to the second holes 62, the secure assembling cannot be realized between the side decoration panel 6 and the front panel 4 since the coupling force between the second hooks 62 and the second fixing holes 42 are weakened.
In addition, since the second hooks 62 are forcedly fitted in the second fixing holes 42, the assembling work is complicated and inconvenient.